Is religion a force for good?

I guess it depends how cynical you are about human nature.  If humans are bad, then religion is bad, since religion is ultimately human.  

I like to think people are basically good, so religion, even false religion, is a force for good as well, overall.  

Where religion is really bad is in enforcing dogmatism.  Whether it be religious fanatics in the Ottoman Empire that prevented the adoption of the printing press as a decadent infidel innovation (to take an example you might be aware of, Set), Communist fanatics in the USSR doing ruthless purges of kossaks (aka any peasant with more than dirt to his name), or any other oppression that stems from a difference in ideas, intolerance and dogmatism are greatly responsible.   This is why freedom of conscience, speech, and belief are so important.  We need to respect people's rights to be wrong.  

I think this poll was in english so just failed to represent the opinion of the majority  Realistically speaking, the rate should have been over %90 just as in saudi  Besides, this has not so much to do with your adherence to religion I suppose. If you'd pick my opinion, I would also agree that religion is a force for good taking into account the vast majority of the society. There is a considerable mass of people who can not be a "good" person without fearing the tales of hell.

On the other hand, the "good" religion offers is extremely relative especially in gender issues. I think it has both good and bad aspects. Looking from the bright side, religion can be a controlling mechanism over perverts - which we know them making a great percentage of turkish male population - injecting fear into the rapist mentality. Though it is reasonable then to argue that why this is not the case in Egypt where grouping of women is a cultural norm?

The dark side is the religious justification of disrespect for women who choose to wear whatever they like. Yet it is not the right way to draw general conclusion from a broad category of religion. Coz when we speak of disrespect for women attributing it to religious teachings, I think we speak of islam which we make our observations upon.

Anyway... This is a deep subjects. No matter how hard we try to elaborate as much aspects as possible, there will always be a majority to neglect what rational arguments say and place mottos and dogmatic ideas instead.